Georgetown declaration

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32994, 14 August 1972, Page 13

Georgetown declaration

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) GEORGETOWN,

(Guyana), August 13.

The Foreign Ministers of 67 non-aligned countries have welcomed the East-West detente, but say that while this has diminished the threat of nuclear war, its effects are limited geographically.

In its final declaration yesterday, the non-aligned countries’ conference said that there was increased competition among the Great Powers in regions other than Europe, and especially on the high seas. The declaration said that there was need for continued efforts to bring about the dissolution of military alliances. Despite the detente, the communique

went on, interventions, subversions, and Great Power rivalries were being pursued elsewhere. It drew attention to continued aggression in IndoChina, the Middle East, and Africa, and said that the lesson had not been learned that military superiority was ineffectual as a weapon for imposing unilateral solutions of any kind on determined people. “The process of detente among the major Powers should be extended to all regions,” the declaration went on. “Unless this is done, there can be no guarantee of world peace, or of the security of developing countries.” The document called for the dismantling of military bases in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and endorsed efforts to create zones of peace in various parts of the world. It noted with satisfaction efforts to neutralise

South-East Asia, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean.

The Foreign Ministers agreed on what they regarded as the urgent necessity of assisting the armed struggles of liberation movements in southern Africa, expressed satisfaction with the Korean peace moves, and condemned the Israeli occupation of Arab lands and American involvement in Indo-China. The declaration called for general, and complete, disarmament, and the destruction of nuclear weapons.

The Foreign Ministers undertook to endeavour by all means to liquidate all traces of colonialism and racial discrimination. They also undertook to consider ways and means of establishing a method of providing systematic finance, arms, and training for African “liberation” movements, and to take organised action to halt trade by all countries with South Africa and Rhodesia, and to stop foreign investments to them. SAIGON PROTEST From Saigon it is reported that the South Vietnamese Government regards the decision of the Georgetown conference to admit the Viet Cong as a flagrant violation of the principle of non-inter-ference in a sovereign country’s internal affairs. In a protest Note sent to the chairman of the conference, the South Vietnamese Government says: “The decision does no honour to the conference. On the contrary, it evidences the bias and prejudice of a number of member countries at the conference, and has made their alleged non-alignment policy meaningless and questionable. “The so-called Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (Viet Cong) represents nobody but itself.”